BCBM Magazine

LinkedIn Social Media Strategies for Online Book Marketing by Phyllis Zimbler Miller

2012-02-02T03:27:50Z

LinkedIn may seem at first glance not to be a top choice for online book marketing - after all, it is a professional networking site that recruiters find particularly fruitful. Yet LinkedIn actually offers numerous opportunities for book authors. ]]> First is the profile, in which if you are a nonfiction author you can display the background and/or credentials that form the foundation of your books. And if you are a fiction author you can display your writing credentials.

Whether a nonfiction and fiction author, you can add the Amazon application on your LinkedIn profile.

Instead of displaying the books you are currently reading, display your own books.

Second, there is now a company profile on LinkedIn. If you have formed a company for your book activities, you can set up a company profile. And then you can create product information or services within that company profile.

Third, you can join groups that focus on book marketing or online marketing or social media marketing or any number of topics, including topics related to the subject matter of your fiction or nonfiction book. Do a search for specific topics after changing the default "People" search category to "Groups."

And on these groups you can ask questions, answer questions and add links to articles that you think would be of interest to the members of a specific group.

Fourth, if you are a nonfiction book author, you can answer questions open to all LinkedIn members in categories related to your nonfiction work. If you are a fiction book author, you can answer questions open to all LinkedIn members in categories related to writing.

To find these questions that you can answer, once you have signed into your LinkedIn account click on "More" on the top nav bar and then click on "Answers." On the right under "Browse" click on a category. Then under this category you'll see sub-categories.

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Source: Ezine Articles

Which Social Media Will Help to Boost Sales? by Harriet Hodgson

2012-02-02T03:24:09Z

I just attended a short seminar about using social media to improve sales. While the overview was informative, it was also a bit overwhelming. Maybe my response was generational, but I'm a "seasoned citizen" and prefer to speak to people face-to-face, not electronically. ]]> Thankfully, I have the necessary computer skills to write books, send emails, participate in blog talk radio, and post on the Internet. But in the computer age, this may not be enough.

Steve Kloyda, a "prospecting expert," gave the seminar and his entire business hinges on maximizing social media. Phone, snail mail, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook YouTube, text messaging -- Kloyda touched on them all. I'm already on Facebook and LinkedIn and stay in touch with book publishing contacts via email and phone. How could I make better use of social media?

According to Kloyda, 75 percent of all Internet activity come from smart phones. I don't have a smart phone and am not sure I need one. However, I do have a professionally designed website and update it every few months. This website has received lots of traffic.

As the seminar came to a close, attendees were asked the action they planned to take to better use social media. I said I would update my Facebook listing. What I didn't say, and am considering, is starting a blog again. Several years ago, I had a blog and, since it didn't get much traffic, canceled my subscription. Though I have a Twitter account, I use the Internet to post, and my posts have been few.

Later, as we were driving home, my friend and I discussed social media and how we could use it to spark book sales. We're co-authoring a book and, after it is published, will go in different marketing directions. She is a dietitian and will continue to network in her field. I'm a grief writer and will continue to produce articles and books in my field.

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Source: Ezine Articles

Are We At the Start of an E-Publishing Bubble? by Ewan Morrison

2012-02-02T03:18:50Z

The internet is full of ironies. I, for one, could never have guessed that writing about the end of books would generate more income for me than actually publishing the damn things. I've been on an End of Books reading tour since August and it turns out that what the internet gurus say about consumers being more willing to pay for events, speeches and gigs, rather than buying cultural objects, is now becoming true. At the other end of the political spectrum from me, among the epublishing enthusiasts and digital fundamentalists, similar ironies are playing out: there is now a boom industry in "How to get rich writing ebooks" manuals, as well as a multitude of blogs offering tips and services, and a new breed of specialists who'll charge you anything from $37 to $149 to get your ebook into shape.

This all seems like a repeat of the boom in get-rich-quick manuals and "specialists" that appeared around blogs and etrading. Did anyone actually get rich from writing blogs, you may ask? Well, according to Jaron Lanier (author of You are not a Gadget) there are only a handful of people in the world who can prove that they make a living from blogging: it's entirely possible that more money was made by those who wrote and sold the how-to manuals than by the bloggers themselves. But who cares, right? It's all part of the euphoria of digital change, and technological innovation is as unstoppable a force as fate. Reports show that paper book sales are "tanking" - down a massive 54.3% while ebook sales are up triumphantly by 138%. The revolution will be epublished, and we're all going to be part of it.

All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers' union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I've personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times "81% of people feel they have a book in them ... And should write it"

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Source: Guardian.co.uk

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Why You Must Have a Good-Looking Website by Christine D. Johnson

2012-02-02T03:15:01Z

Even if you don't plan to do much Internet selling, an appealing online presence is absolutely vital--and doable

Brick-and-mortar retailers may be committed to their physical operation, but having an online presence is still critical to building and maintaining their business.

]]> While some Christian stores put significant time and energy into their Web sites, others go with the basics, recognizing that being online means regular or potential shoppers can find them and get a feel for the store before spending gas money--an increasingly important factor for many cost-conscious consumers--and taking the trip.

Do-It-Yourself might be fine at home, but unless you're very Internet-savvy, it might be better to consider a template-driven service with minimal up-front cost, such as Innovative's Signature Websites.

With a professional look, such an inexpensive site can help market your store 24/7 to anyone who comes across it while surfing the Internet or visits the site looking for a particular product.

Web site service providers can also help stores reach their customers with email promotions, endcap signage and vendor-supported sale products. A significant benefit is that the store doesn't have to stock all of the inventoried products at its physical location.

Many stores use Facebook--and it's important to use this social-media platform, too--but a dedicated site for non-Facebook users is still needed. Don't forget to provide your store's Web address on your Facebook page, too.

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Source: Christian Retailing

Book Trailers Generate Interest

2012-02-02T03:12:04Z

Two online video libraries that can help Christian retailers sell more books have expanded their offerings.

As ChristianBookVideos.com prepares to mark its third anniversary next month, it has just posted its 1,500th Christian book trailer at the site, while Christian Retailing has added around 50 more contributors to its growing Author Corner service.

]]> With video postings from all the major Christian publishers, ChristianBookVideo.com draws around 5,000 unique visitors a month, said Managing Director Edward Bolme, who runs the site with his wife, Sarah. The pair also runs the Christian Small Publishers Association as a separate organization.

The book video site lists titles by category and author, and also includes search functions. In addition to an online purchasing option, the site provides an email link for readers to buy the books from their local Christian bookstore.

Bolme said that some stores were making use of the reader-focused service. "If you have some sort of public access to a computer, it's a great tool for the staff to have."

The latest additions to Christian Retailing's Author Corner collection bring to more than 600 the messages from authors to Christian retailers wanting to know more about the writers and their work.

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Source: Christian Retailing

iBooks 2: Reinventing Textbooks Or Lulu on Steroids? by Calvin Reid

2012-02-02T03:11:07Z

While the launch of Apple's iBooks 2, its new multimedia textbook format, and iBooks Author, the free authoring tool Apple has produced to create them, may indeed "reinvent the textbook," there are a lot of questions to be answered before it does. That doesn't mean that Apple didn't put on quite a show last week. In addition to debuting its own digital textbook format as well as an easy-to-use authoring tool, Apple also seemed to be ratcheting up the appeal of the iBookstore as a self-publishing platform. And iBooks 2 textbooks (or whatever else is produced using iBooks Author) will be priced at $14.99 or less. Phillip Schiller, Apple senior v-p of worldwide marketing, welcomed the audience into the presentation (held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City) by announcing, "Education is in our DNA," referring to Apple and its longtime interest and support of education. He cited a litany of dismal statistics about American education and its ranking internationally (17th in reading, 31st in math, 23rd in science) before asserting, "We can help with student engagement, especially when the iPad is integrated into the curriculum." While the presentation was a bit self-serving, who would argue with the statement that "the iPad is #1 on most teens' wish list." Apple even unveiled a series of iBooks 2 high school digital texts by Apple partners Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and DK ready to go at launch, as well as an exclusive deal to release for free the first two chapters of a new biology textbook by acclaimed Harvard professor E.O. Wilson, with for-pay chapters to come.

A typically impressive series of Apple-produced videos and demos followed Schiller's introduction, detailing how iBooks2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U will work. They also outlined both iBooks 2's promise and implied its likely pitfalls.

After a series of conversations with publishers and other digital vendors, PW collected a lot of questions, among them, why did Apple choose to launch with high school textbooks? Is it a sustainable business model to sell $15 e-textbooks directly to students every year instead of selling $70 print texts to school districts for five-year adoptions? (Asked by the technology blog TechCrunch how a publisher makes money selling $15 e-texts, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw replied, "volume"). And who's going to supply iPads to all those students (HMH spokesperson Josef Blumenfeld said there are 50 million students in U.S. schools)? Probably not cash-strapped school districts. "We're agnostic about devices," Blumenfeld said, a comment repeated by a number of publishers. "We love the iPad, but will every student have one? That's the question."

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Source: Publishers Weekly

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Digital Book World: Now is the Best Time to Be an Author by Gabe Habash

2012-02-02T03:08:48Z

The "Doing It on Their Own: Self-publishing Authors Find Success" panel at the Digital Book World conference January 25 was one of the most enthusiastic session of the show. It featured Bella Andre and Elle Lothlorien, both successful self-published authors, as well as Bob Mayer of Who Dares Wins Publishing and Tony Van Veen, CEO of BookBaby. Andre and Lothlorien led off by sharing their success stories. Andre has sold 400,000 copies of her books in the last year and has made over $1 million. Her books have been translated or are in the process of being translated in nine languages. Lothlorien, author of The Frog Prince, which she published herself on Amazon after having a bad experience with traditional publishing, saw her title peak at #859 in the Kindle Store. She started the book at a $2.99 prince point, but as she raised the price, she saw her sales increase.

On the publishing side of the self-publish model, Mayer and Van Veen emphasized the benefits of doing it yourself. About getting books published, Mayer said, "I can move very fast," and that he doesn't believe there's such a thing as backlist anymore. "Backlist is frontlist," he said. Van Veen stressed BookBaby's "welcome all comers" mentality, saying that their $99 price point for basic formatting and distribution is set to offer the most value so authors can get their works out there.

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Source: Publishers Weekly

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Purpose Leads to Perspective by Jennifer E. Lindsay

2012-02-02T03:07:43Z

My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses to the King; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer (Psalm 45:1).

Norm Rohrer, founder of the Christian Writers Guild and my first mentor, said all writers should have a purpose, and he encouraged me to create a mission statement.

]]> What is your writing bottom line?

Every time you sit down to write, know why. While my specific reason may change from time to time, my underlying principle never does: I want my work to glorify my King.

When I decided to pursue writing as a profession rather than a hobby, I realized a writer is more than someone who jots words on a page. Being a writer is an identity.

Let your words speak

Everything I do has God's fingerprints on it. My words echo His love, reflect His creativity, and in some way retell the story He spoke into existence at creation.

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Source: Christian Writers Guild

Bible Reference in the Electronic Age by Kristin Swenson

2012-02-02T03:03:32Z

Got questions about how to use turmeric, the mating habits of penguins, or why water still drips out of the faucet when it should come through the filter you've attached? If you're like the majority of the curious today, you'll turn to the Internet for answers. Questions about the Bible are no different--people go online to find out who Paul was, where the remnants of Noah's ark might be, what deities the Israelites worshipped that made God so angry, and how many miracles Jesus performed. ]]>

Not so long ago, it was books--heavy, often multivolume tomes--that were the go-to resource for definitive information. One advantage was that it was pretty easy to determine the credentials of the authors of those books. You could assume that encyclopedias were edited by subject authorities who invited qualified contributors, and that dictionaries were compiled by experts. Bible commentaries laid out their authors' credentials, and lexica were the product of professional philologists. On the downside, it was difficult for any individual to have all sources at his or her elbow. In-depth research usually required a trip to the library, and it could take a long time to hunt down the answers hiding in one volume or another. We also had to wait, sometimes years, for new editions to incorporate changes in a field of study or to record new discoveries.

All of this is different thanks to the electronic revolution of the past couple of decades. There's no going back, and most of us don't want to. We have information, it seems everything you'd want to know (and more), immediately available at the click of a mouse. The biggest problem is that checking the sources for such online information and verifying the accuracy of information is often difficult. Many people don't bother.

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Source: Publishers Weekly

What Is The Future Of Libraries? by Susan H. Hildreth

2012-02-02T03:00:17Z

People depend on libraries now more than ever. Not only do visits and circulation continue to rise, the role of public libraries in providing Internet resources to the public continues to increase as well. Public libraries have also increased their program offerings to meet greater demand and provide more targeted services. In the business world, such demand for an industry's services would mean big profits for that sector. But despite the demonstrated ability of libraries to adjust to meet the growing needs of the public, many libraries across the country face severe budget cuts.

There is no doubt that the future success of libraries depends on their ability to change and evolve to meet the changing ways that people access and use information. As director of the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the federal voice for library and museum service in the U.S. -- I see three big goals for libraries: provide engaging learning experiences, become community anchors, and provide access to content even as the devices for accessing that content change rapidly.

These are some of the findings of the Institute of Museum and Library Services' report on the FY2009 Public Library Survey (PLS), a census of American public libraries.

The Institute's analysis of the data showed that per capita visits to libraries rose by 24 percent in the century's first decade, while circulation increased by 26 percent. In 2009, libraries were visited a record-breaking 1.59 billion times. Libraries have defied the conventional wisdom that Google, Wikipedia, and the like would make them obsolete. That's because they've recognized and responded to the evolving ways in which people use libraries.

Those who prematurely announced the demise of libraries at the hands of the Internet failed to anticipate the symbiotic relationship that would develop between the two institutions. As revealed by Interconnections: The IMLS National Study on the Use of Libraries, Museums, and the Internet, Internet users are much more likely to visit public libraries than non-Internet users.

Libraries' ability to provide public access to the Internet accounts for much of the change in the way people use these institutions. In the 12-month period studied for the IMLS-funded Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access (PDF) at U.S. Libraries, 77 million Americans aged 14 and older took advantage of Internet access in a public library. That number represents 46 percent of all library visitors during that same period and 32 percent of all Americans over the age of 14.

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Source: The Huffington Post

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Why Do People Still Bother to Write Books? by Lisa Earle McLeod

2012-02-02T02:58:30Z

Have you ever heard someone say, "I should write a book?" Perhaps you've said it yourself.

I believe everyone has a book in them.

]]> As an author, people often approach me with the "everyone says I should write a book" line. They then proceed to either tell me their idea, which I always like to hear, or ask me how the publishing process works, which I find far less exciting to describe.

Writing a book is hard enough. Getting it published is even more challenging. You have to want it pretty badly.

People want to write books for a lot of reasons. They want to be famous. They want to make a pile of money. They want everybody from high school to see that they're not a big fat loser after all.

But there's really only one good reason to write a book: because you can't stand not to write it.

You have a story or idea that you truly must share with the world, or you will just die.

I know it was that way for me. You get to a certain point emotionally, where it's easier to do the book than to not do the book.

My latest book, The Triangle of Truth, was born when I saw the same problem cropping up in multiple places. I work as a sales leadership consultant. I also write a personal development column and I'm a keen observer of politics. Here's what I observed in each area.

Salespeople who can't put themselves in the customer's shoes miss opportunities. When they're only focused on their own products and services, they miss what's going on with their customer. They become so attached to their own agenda that they're blind to any perspective other than their own. The result is frustration, unhappiness and lack of success.

Every time I write about personal relationships in my newspaper column I get loads of letters from hurt, angry, jaded people describing the many ways their partner didn't "get it." They want more conversation; their partner wants physical contact. They want a tight budget; their partner wants the freedom to spend. They become so attached to their own agenda that they're blind to any perspective other than their own. The result is frustration, unhappiness and lack of success.

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Source: The Huffington Post

Barnes & Noble Won't Stock Amazon's Books

2012-02-02T02:55:53Z

Barnes & Noble will stop selling Amazon's books in its 703 stores, according to a statement from the company published on the New York Times Media Decoder blog. ]]> Jaime Carey, the company's chief merchandising officer, said in a statement:

"Our decision is based on Amazon's continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain e-books to our customers. Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content."

The move is another blow in the fight between the two retail giants who are currently the leading players both in the field of ebook readers (Amazon's Kindle vs Barnes & Noble's Nook) and physical book sales.

Amazon has been making significant moves into publishing in recent months, acquiring the rights to 47 books from the backlist of deceased bestselling mystery author Ed McBain, as well as the memoir of Hollywood producer Penny Marshall. The practices of its New York unit, headed by Laurence Kirshbaum, was recently profiled in Bloomberg Businessweek in an issue headed "Amazon Wants To Burn The Book Industry."

Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, has its own imprint, Sterling Publishing, which it acquired in 2003 and put up for sale last month. Sterling Publishing's books are available to purchase via Amazon, as is Barnes & Noble's e-reader, the Nook.

Last week, a deal was announced between Amazon and publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to create a new HMH imprint, New Harvest, entirely made up of Amazon-acquired titles that would be distributed to book stores. It is understood that this imprint is included in Barnes & Noble's ban on Amazon-published books, and might prompt some authors not to sign with one of Amazon's six imprints.

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Source: The Huffington Post

5 Reasons Why You Should Commit Your Goals to Writing by Michael Hyatt

2012-02-02T02:52:48Z

Gail and I were currently on a sabbatical. It has provided me with a great opportunity to review my goals and set new ones. As I have been doing so, I have realized once again, the incredible power of committing your goals to writing.

I have done this for years. I have written my goals on yellow legal pads, on black notebooks, in special goal-setting software, and now in Evernote, alongside my Life Plan.

]]> Here are just a few goals I have written down over the last three decades:

Marry a godly Christian woman who is passionate about hospitality.
Make $100,000 a year doing what I love.
Lose 25 pounds and get in the best shape of my life.
Complete a half marathon.
Write a New York Times bestselling book.
Become the CEO of Thomas Nelson.

Of course, most people don't bother to write down their goals. Instead, they drift through life aimlessly, wondering why their life lacks purpose and significance. I am not saying that committing your goals to writing is the end-game. It's not. But it is the beginning.

Here are five reasons you should commit your goals to writing:

1. Because it will force you to clarify what you want. Imagine setting out on a trip with no particular destination in mind. How do you pack? What roads do you take? How do you know when you have arrived? Instead, you start by picking a destination. The same is true with the milestones in your life. Writing down your goals forces you to select something specific and decide what you want.

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Source: Michael Hyatt

Why Entrepreneurs Should Self-Publish by James Altucher

2012-02-02T02:21:44Z

I've published eight books in the past seven years, five with traditional publishers (Wiley, Penguin, HarperCollins), one comic book, and the last two I've self-published. In this post I give the specific details of all of my sales numbers and advances with the traditional publishers. Although the jury is still out on my self-published books, "How to be the Luckiest Man Alive" and "I Was Blind But Now I See" I can tell you these two have already sold more than my five books with traditional publishers, combined.

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If you, the entrepreneur, self-publish a book you will stand out, you will make more money, you will kick your competitors right in the XX, and you will look amazingly cool at cocktail parties. I know this because I am seldom cool but at cocktail parties, with my very own comic book, I can basically have sex with anyone in the room. But don't believe me, it costs you nothing and almost no time to try it yourself.

The rest of this article is really three discussions: Why self-publish rather than use a traditional publisher, why entrepreneurs should self-publish, and finally, HOW does one go about self-publishing.

WHY:

A) Advances are going to zero. Book publishers are getting more and more squeezed by declining booksellers so they, in turn, have to squeeze the writers. Because of so much free content on the Internet, the value per unit of content is going to zero unless you are already an established name-brand author.

B) Lag time. When you self-publish, you can have your book up and running on Amazon, paperback and kindle, within days. When you publish with a traditional publisher its a grueling process: book proposal, agents, lawyers, meetings, edits, packaging, catalogs, etc that ensures that your book doesn't actually get published until a year later. Literally, as I write this a friend of mine just IMed me the details of his book deal he just got with a mainstream publisher. Publication date: 2014.

C) Marketing. Publishers claim they do a lot of marketing for you. That's laughable. I'll give you a very specific story. When I published with Penguin they then met with a friend of mine whose book they wanted to publish. They didn't realize she was my friend. She asked them, "what marketing did you do for James Altucher's book". They said, "well, we got him a review in The Financial Times and we got a segment about his book on CNBC and an excerpt in thestreet.com"

Here's what's so funny. I had a weekly column in The Financial Times. I WROTE my own review. As a joke. For CNBC, I had a weekly segment on CNBC. So naturally I spoke about my book during my regular segment. And for thestreet.com excerpt, I had just sold my last company to thestreet.com. So instead of doing my usual article for them I did an excerpt. In other words, the publisher did NOTHING, but took credit for EVERYTHING. Ultimately, authors (unless you are Stephen King, etc) have to do their own marketing for books. The first question publishers ask, even, before they look at your proposal is, "How big is your platform?" They want to know how you can market the book and if they can make money on just your own marketing efforts.

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Source: TechCrunch

Imagine the Millions, by Paulette Ensign

2012-02-01T15:00:23Z

Imagine an order for three million copies of a book or a tips booklet you wrote. Having trouble with that image? It might be that you're focusing on selling single copies, one at a time. It could be that you think there is some unattainable magic that happens somewhere in between the number one and the number million. Maybe you believe you don't know what the mechanics are for selling three million copies. Imagine walking up to a director of marketing of some major corporation and simply saying something like 'this book or booklet will help you sell more of your widgets.' And the director of marketing agreed with you. And the person wanted to know the price and delivery time. Would you need a new oxygen supply to keep breathing or would you know what to do?

You have been used to operating in a particular-sized universe, selling a single copy of a single information product to a single user, or multiples through a traditional distributor, though not in those quantities. Imagine a major calendar company, for instance, that produces millions of calendars each and every year. And they want to include a copy of your tips booklet or your book with each calendar that they offer for sale, as a "value added" item to help them sell more of their calendars. Yes, that's a real scenario.

How about a smaller amount? What about a catalog company who wants to license the specific rights to print a mere 250,000 copies of your book or booklet so they can offer it as a gift with any purchase in a particular issue of their catalog? That 250,000 copies can sound like a lot until you realize that the company distributed 17 million copies of their catalog that year. Your 250,000 copies was merely a test to see how the catalog's customers and prospects would respond to the offer of your tips booklet, whether it would prompt more sales of the catalog's products.

Connecting the dots between imagining, and making it so consists of educating yourself on who it is that's a likely candidate, realizing what the production steps are, researching your costs so you can effectively price the product, and putting yourself into the position of having conversations with people who want what you've got. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

What are you imagining? What are you going to do about it? When? Or would you rather continue selling single copies, one at a time? Those choices are yours to imagine and take action.

Paulette Ensign teaches people worldwide how to surpass her results of selling well over a million copies of her own tips booklet, in 4 languages and various formats, without spending a penny on advertising. Start your million-copy book and booklet journey with her free gifts at www.tipsbooklets.com © 2009, Paulette Ensign

Source: http://www.sellingbooks.com/imagine-the-millions

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